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Tuesday, 20 February 2018

Coniston fells,wild camp Feb 2018

I had a message off Darron,saying he was coming up for a few nights in the Lakes and did i want to meet him.I had planned to take the Friday off and have two nights out with him,but the forecast was pish,so we agreed to meet Saturday morning instead

A bit of confusion over where i said to meet and we set off under grey skies just before 9 am,hence the lack of photos

We entered the clag well before reaching the top of the Walna scar track and didnt get any views after that, which was a shame as Darons not seen these views yet

We followed the line of mountains northwards with the wind being fresh and temps low it was nice to have the wind to our backs

After reaching Swirl how we dropped down towards Great carrs and made a visit to the old Halifax crash site,i had to take a compass bearing from here to help us find the col below Great Friars summit

Once at the col we searched out a running water supply,which involved us listening and kicking through the snow, with the extra weight we headed up,then searched out a pitch for the night

We both shoveled out a pitch while Max watched on,just after the shelters went up we got a very brief 2 mins of late sunshine,then it was back to clag

I did a short timelapse of us pitching our shelters

https://youtu.be/o8qr_cTt4HQ

We were still hoping for the weather to clear and give us a nigce night sky,but sadly it wasnt to be

Not long after breakfast it looked like it would finally clear out,but sadly it was only a brief few minutes

" Leaving no trace " at our camp spot was a bit hard this morning,we walked back unto Swirl how where we parted company Darron to carry on back the way we came and me to drop down the prison band and over Wetherlam to my car

Im pretty sure this cairn at col between the Prison band and Wetherlam is much bigger than this !

I'd lent my map to Darren and given the thick clag and huge amount of snowfall i'll admit it was hard work navigating over to Wetherlam and off it again

Not that clear now but you can still make out some of the old miners ? carvings in the stone as i regained some views and dropped back into the Copper mines valley

It was good to meet up with Darron and Max again,but a shame we got no views....still a good few miles in good winter conditions Thanks for looking and safe travels Peter